Little House on the Prairie

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by jason88cubs, May 18, 2018.

  1. Jack Lord

    Jack Lord Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I read a couple of the books and watched the show. I have always liked history and it seemed to be a decent account of settler life.

    It could be very amusing (anything with Nelly Olson), uplifting (when Charles allows the older man to win a chopping contest), and very brutal (fires, disease, etc). Ran the gamut.
     
    George Co-Stanza and Michael like this.
  2. Keith V

    Keith V Forum Resident

    Location:
    Secaucus, NJ
    Her mother was the voice of Sweet Polly Purebred on Underdog.
     
    seed_drill likes this.
  3. Great show,
    I've really loved it though it's been a little while since I've seen it. I have the first four seasons. I don't like when Mary loses her sight, or what the Reverend Alden says about it either; the latter appalled me.
    It gets pretty bad starting around there for me; it got much worse later, though I saw a couple episodes with the Nancy Olsen character and they were so over-the-top I had to laugh.
    I like the first three seasons the best. Laura stood for right, and the show had a lot of heart. I love how it was so much against bullying.
    Some episodes I really liked were (going through IMDB now to refresh my memory): Country Girls, Town Party-Country Party, School Mom, The Collection (with Johnny Cash! And June Carter too), The Bully Boys, Injun Kid, The Music Box (Laura's nightmares, excellent), The Election...yeah season 4 it went downhill for me. I can't remember the season 2 ones easily now.
    I loved this show as a kid, all the early episodes with Half-Pint as the hero against bullying, spoiled, rich Nellie (with her one-dimensional mother), and found myself watching the early episodes a lot a year ago.
     
    905 likes this.
  4. hated it as a kid and I doubt I would find much to like about it now. Glad others enjoy it -I'm sure a great deal of effort and care went into creating it.
     
    kevinsponge likes this.
  5. feinstei9415

    feinstei9415 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    I was in love with Mrs. Olsen. She was my ideal perfect woman... Gentle, loving, never trying to impose her will on her family... What's interesting is that "Scottie" MacGregor is still alive living in the Motion Picture Home these days. Up till a couple of years ago, she was over in India learning at the feet of Hindu gurus.

    I knew Norma MacMillan as the voice of the Kennedy kids on the "First Family" albums. Her older brother Stefan starred as the kid on "Land Of The Giants". He apparently abused Allison as a child. Amazing that she's such a sweet, decent, funny, and charitable individual today. She works tirelessly for charities that deal with HIV and AIDS...
     
    Keith V likes this.
  6. PJC68

    PJC68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool UK
    When i visit my 74 year old mother she watches this and the Waltons :mad:
    If you want cheese then try the Love boat :D

     
    Michael likes this.
  7. swandown

    swandown Under Assistant West Coast Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    The actresses who played Mrs. Oleson and Nellie Oleson were both really good. Sure, they were playing stereotypes....but they did it sooooooooo well!

    Remember when Nellie starting getting a little old so they brought in a younger version of her ("Nancy")?? But the magic just wasn't there.
     
    Jimmy B. and Michael like this.
  8. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    LOL...she made Nellie look like Laura..Nancy was cruel and rotten! Nellie turned out great after she got married...
     
  9. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I could not get through an episode of The Love Boat...terrible, just terrible...Waltons! GREAT...
     
  10. PJC68

    PJC68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool UK
    What about this then :laugh:
     
    seed_drill and Michael like this.
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    just as bad if not worse! LOL...
     
  12. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yes the great Forrest Tucker!
     
    Steve Carras likes this.
  13. snowman872

    snowman872 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wilcox, AZ
    LHOTP was one of the best family shows ever. We could use a lot more wholesome TV programming like Little House these days.

    And Love Boat is a classic! They should bring it back.
     
  14. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    it's too late for that...
     
  15. snowman872

    snowman872 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wilcox, AZ
    Too late for wholesome TV, or The Love Boat? Or both? Why is it too late?
     
  16. George Co-Stanza

    George Co-Stanza Forum Resident

    Location:
    America
    I can't remember what seasons I liked the most and whatnot, but I always enjoyed the show when I watched it. Any time the Olsens were involved, it was great, and the post by Jack Lord hit the nail on the head as far as this show running the gauntlet as far as covering just about everything. It could make you laugh or cry, smile or frown, feel sad or uplifted, etc. They don't make them like this anymore.
     
  17. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    I always enjoy it when I catch it in syndication.
    It reminds me of a simpler time (me growing up in the 70s).
    Had one of my earliest crushes on Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingells)



    Darryl
     
    All Down The Line and Jimmy B. like this.
  18. AndrewS

    AndrewS Senior Member

    Location:
    S. Ontario, Canada
    Yeah, that's just silly, IMHO.

    Cousin Oliver was on for 6 poorly rated episodes of the last season of The Brady Bunch.

    Albert was on for the last 5 seasons of Little House. The episodes are still highly rated. (Matthew was actually on earlier, playing a young Charles Ingalls)

    I'm fully on-board for disliking throwing kids into an established show, but in this case I thought it worked well. He was in some really good episodes, too.

    Not liking the character is obviously subjective, but comparing him to Cousin Oliver is ridiculous.
     
  19. I like a lot of the messages it teaches, considering this world of greed and brutality we live in. It often has made me cry from its heart.
    I just watched the Country Girls episode on DVD thanks to this thread about an hour ago so I'm extra glad for it.
    I wish I had the Blu-ray, but watching two girls too poor to afford a pencil and tablet each themselves, well, who am I to complain? To be like Willie, "My Pa buys me any pony I want" - ?
    Nellie "My house is the fanciest" etc... No I don't think so.
    I love how it's against the snobby attitude that many have against the poor and stands up for them.
     
    905 likes this.
  20. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Growing up I had a huge crush on Melissa Gilbert. I remember my older brother told some of his adult friends about it and they told him she was in town at the time. She was in a play called "Bus Stop" in 1986 (I was 15). The play was at the University Of Tennessee.
    [​IMG]

    I forgot that Teri Copely & Knoxville's own David Keith were also in the play. I was familiar with the play and loved it because a few years earlier I was sick and stayed home from school for several days and it seems the play was in high rotation on HBO (Melissa was not in the HBO version).

    Anyway, leading up to the play my older brother was a student at UT so he knew some people at the Clarence Brown Theater on campus. He was going to try and arrange for me to meet Melissa. The story was she also had a dog with her that she could no longer take care of and was searching for a good home for the dog. Now why she would be travelling with a dog, I don't know. The people my brother knew had mentioned to her there was a teenage kid who had a huge crush on her that would love to give her dog a good home. My parents were even on board with the idea. But by the time they told Melissa about me wanting the dog she had already promised it to someone else. So no Little House dog for me I guess. I never did get to meet her but my brother did take me to see the play and I enjoyed it.

    In her play bio it mentions the dog:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    A couple of years ago on a whim I tried to email Melissa and tell her this story. I told her that my brother was a huge prankster and that more than likely this whole dog story was an elaborate hoax on the part of my brother (remember as I stated at the time my brother was a student at UT and had access to the play bill so he could've read it, saw she brought her dog and planned to trick me). Surprisingly less than an hour later I got a response that said something like "Nope, your brother wasn't playing a trick. I did have my dog and couldn't keep it and wanted to find it a good home and remember there was a teen who wanted it and by the time i heard about it I had already found a home for Sidney". I'm confident it was her as I never mentioned the name of the dog or much of the story other than "You were in Bus Stop in Knoxville and brought your dog and I was hoping to meet you and give your dog a home". Her response verfied what my brother told me. Kind of cool even tho I never got to meet her but I did see her in the play.
     
  21. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    The actor who played Albert was a couple of years younger than Melissa Gilbert, but he was four years older than the twins who played Carrie. And most of the time he was on the show he was a teenager. So it wasn't exactly a case of "we don't have any young kids anymore." Maybe they brought him in because those girls couldn't act? I'm not sure I remember ever seeing an episode that focused on Carrie.

    I'd bet Landon wanted to be able to do father and son stories too, which he couldn't do with the Ingalls family as established by the books.
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2018
  22. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    It’s not so much a ‘younger character’ as a new one sometimes. Shows grow stagnant and it’s perceived new blood will spice things up. It’s a chance for new storylines and dynamics.

    It has rarely worked. It didn’t work here, either.

    I actually feel fairly foolish commenting so much on a show I have professed to not care about anymore. It obviously made an impact on me as a young kid. I do not hold onto the sentiments of it now like others, but I think I’ve made that clear by now.
     
  23. AndrewS

    AndrewS Senior Member

    Location:
    S. Ontario, Canada
    Yeah, they were not good actors. There was an episode on Carrie, and it was one of the worst episodes of the entire run. She dreamt that she met a little girl that looked like her, who of course, was played by her twin sister.
     
  24. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    OMG! LOL... Yes, my wife and I struggled through that one...
     
  25. Jack Lord

    Jack Lord Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    One grim episode I recall is when rats were crawling all over the stored wheat. The whole town became ill from contaminated flour. Charles and Nels were the last men standing and saved everyone.
     
    Michael likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine